The prevention of contamination of food product by pathogenic microorganisms is important to protect public health. The reduction of spoilage microorganisms in food manufacturing facilities can extend product shelf lives and reduce the amount of food that is discarded as waste. There is a need for improved methods of controlling microorganisms in food production plants. Microorganisms can accumulate at a variety of different points in a food manufacturing operation; the more points at which viable microorganisms can be controlled, the lower the chances of food contamination and the safer the manufacturing process.
The use of acid-anionic surfactants as antibacterial agents is known. These agents have limited utility in environments where operation at low temperature is required, as their effectiveness drops off significantly at lower temperature and, of course, operation below 0° C. is typically prevented by freezing. Their activity is also directly dependent on maintaining a relatively low pH, with activities dropping rapidly above pH 3.
Other antibacterial agents have been identified, but their use is problematic due to their non-food quality status. For example, a wide variety of chemical disinfecting agents are in use in food plants. However, there are often disadvantages to these chemicals. In some instances they are too toxic to come into direct contact with the food itself, and may present worker safety or environmental waste disposal issues. In other instances they are insufficiently effective to provide adequate kill of microorganisms, especially at low temperatures. Additionally, the relatively high cost of these chemicals adds to the cost of food production and, consequently, increases the cost of the end product itself.
Salt has been used for thousands of years as a food preservative. Often, however, salt solutions alone are not sufficiently effective as antibacterial agents, as they do not provide a speedy mechanism for killing unwanted bacteria that permits their exclusive use in food processing environments. Also there are certain pathogenic microorganisms that survive very well in salt brines even at cold temperatures, such as Listeria monocytogenes. 
Thus, a problem associated with the antimicrobial solutions for food safety applications that precede the present invention is that they do not provide an improved antimicrobial solution for food safety applications having operating parameters adaptable to a multiplicity of applications in the food processing industry.
Another problem associated with the antimicrobial solutions for food safety applications that precede the present invention is that they do not provide an antimicrobial solution for food safety applications having safe, acceptable ingredients for use in food processing to prevent bacteria from accumulating in food processing operations.
Yet another problem associated with the antimicrobial solutions for food safety applications that precede the present invention is that they do not provide an antimicrobial solution for food safety applications that can be used at temperatures below room temperature, and preferably below the normal freezing point of water (0° C.).
Still a further problem associated with the antimicrobial solutions for food safety applications that precede the present invention is that they may contain or lead to toxic and/or environmentally undesirable additives. For example, they may contain quaternary ammonium chloride as the anti-bacterial ingredient, or they may form chlorinated or brominated byproducts, or they may contain phosphates.
Yet another problem associated with the antimicrobial solutions for food safety applications that precede the present invention is that they do not provide an antimicrobial solution for food safety applications that is relatively inexpensive to purchase, use and maintain.
Yet another problem associated with some of the antimicrobial solutions for food safety applications that precede this invention is that they require low pH for effectiveness, and low pH solutions have detrimental effects on concrete floors and can contribute to corrosion of equipment. There is a need for antimicrobial solutions which are highly effective at neutral or near neutral pH.
For the foregoing reasons, there has been defined a long felt and unsolved need for an improved antimicrobial solution for food safety applications.